Governor and lawmakers should find funding for summer reading efforts

It's been nearly four years since the Iowa Legislature passed a law directing schools to create Intensive Summer Literacy Programs by May 2017. It was part of high-profile education legislation intended to intervene and help third-graders who are struggling to read.

Those students could enroll in the summer program, or face the prospect of being held back to repeat third grade. That academic line in the sand was intended to underscore both the importance of reading intervention at a critical moment in a child's development and the state's determination to boost student achievement.

That determination remains. What's missing now is funding.

Gov. Terry Branstad's 2016-17 budget plan includes no money for implementing summer literacy, despite the Department of Education's request for $9 million. The governor says he'd rather wait until next year, perhaps by March 2017, to provide funds. Maybe, by then, Iowa's budget picture will have improved.

Wishful thinking will provide little solace to Iowa school districts. According to a survey commissioned by the Iowa Reading Research Center, 40 percent of Iowa's school districts do not have summer reading programs in place. Among those without programs, 73 percent cited a lack of funding, with many also pointing to a lack of transportation resources and summer staffing.

Criteria developed by the research for the intensive summer program calls for a minimum of 75 hours of instruction, in classes no larger than 15 students and small groups no larger than five taught by 'skilled, high quality” educators.

Lawmakers and the governor had good reason to believe such an approach would make a difference in a state where, according to the education department testing data, 20 to 25 percent of third-graders aren't reading up to grade level.

But without resources delivered soon enough to allow for planning and thoughtful implantation, the program's chances for success, in our view, will be diminished. Lawmakers and the governor should seek out funding for the budget year that begins July 1. Special interest tax breaks might be a good place to start.

It's a matter of priorities. Are lawmakers and the governor truly interested in helping Iowa's students become proficient and successful readers? Or will this be yet another big promise to Iowa's schoolchildren our leaders can't keep?

' Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com